The Holy Instant and the Attraction of God

Body. The body is the ego’s favorite way to keep minds hidden in relationships. Bodies can be intimate while minds remain guarded behind a face, a posture, a tone. The body is recruited to measure love—presence as proof, absence as rejection—and specialness becomes the judge.

Body. In the Holy Instant the body’s need loosens and communication becomes direct in content. Even the body’s destruction would not interrupt communication, because communication is of mind. Guilt keeps your brother in a body because a body is attackable and blameable.

Joining. The holy instant is the moment the mind releases its separate uses and accepts one purpose. The relationship becomes a bridge out of isolation rather than a fortress that protects it. Union does not mean harmony in form or that the other person suddenly behaves well; it means the relationship is no longer used to prove separation.

Kingdom. Heaven is available now—in the instant—not a distant state you eventually arrive at. Time is shown with two uses: one reinforces separation through past as proof and future as bargain; the other becomes a classroom for choosing again. You have never truly left the Kingdom; the only distance is your desire to keep two kingdoms in mind at once.

Littleness. The holy instant contains total release from littleness, but you cannot accept it while you still want littleness and protect it. There is something in the small self that feels useful—safety, innocence, permission to be excused. The practice is not searching for grandeur inside the small self but letting littleness go as a relinquishment of a cherished defense.